Rock Hill, S.C. ? Former South Atlantic Conference Commissioner Doug Echols and four highly-decorated former student-athletes have been elected to The South Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame, Commissioner Patrick Britz announced today.
The Class of 2008-09 includes Echols, who served as the first SAC Commissioner; Lenoir-Rhyne University?s Michelle Baity Bryant, one of the conference?s most dominating volleyball players; Tusculum College women?s tennis standout Lesley Murray, the SAC?s first-ever four-time player of the year; Carson-Newman College women?s basketball standout Leah Jackson Smith; and Mars Hill College?s Andy Thompson, one of the top men?s soccer players in SAC history.
They will be inducted into the SAC Hall of Fame as part of the South Atlantic Conference Annual Meeting at in Asheville, N.C., on June 4. The banquet will be at the Biltmore Doubletree Hotel with a reception at 6:15 p.m. with dinner and inductions at 7 p.m.
Michelle Baity Bryant was one of the South Atlantic Conference?s most dominating volleyball players. She was a four-time volleyball first-team All-Conference selection from 1998-2001 and was named the 1998 SAC Freshman of the Year. She led the conference in kills per game for three consecutive years and hitting percentage for two years.
She still currently holds 15 career and single-season records at Lenoir-Rhyne and is the only player in school history to have her jersey retired. She is Lenoir-Rhyne?s all-time leader in kills, attacks and hitting percentage. Baity Bryant was also an Academic All-District selection in 2001. After graduation, she served as an assistant coach at Lenoir-Rhyne for four years, helping the squad to its only two SAC regular-season championships. She currently is a nurse for Maple Leaf Health Care in Statesville, N.C.
Doug Echols joined the South Atlantic Conference in 1989 as the league?s first commissioner and guided the league for 19 years before retiring in 2008.
During his tenure with the conference, he served on numerous NCAA committees. Echols previously served as a member of the NCAA Division II Restructuring Task Force, which helped to reorganize the one thousand NCAA schools into a more federated model for Divisions I, II, and III. As an outgrowth of his work on the restructuring task force, Echols was appointed a member of the first NCAA Division II Management Council that guided the administration of athletics for almost three hundred Division II institutions throughout the country. While on the Management Council, Echols served on several national committees that included Nominations (chair), Diversity, NCAA Honors and helped develop a Blueprint Compliance Model for Division II. Echols is past president of the NCAA Division II Commissioners Association, and most recently was appointed as a Division II representative to an NCAA task force to review the divisional structure for all NCAA institutions.
Echols graduated from Mars Hill College in 1967, where he played football and was named to the Knoxville News Sentinel All-Area team in 1967. He was inducted into the Mars Hill College Hall of Fame in 2006.
Echols was elected mayor of Rock Hill, SC in 1998 and is serving his third term in that position. He is serving as chair of the Southern Municipal Conference which is comprised of state municipal league representatives and executive directors of the fourteen southern states.
Echols and his wife, Sylvia, a public school principal and children?s advocate, have both been involved in community affairs for many years and reside in Rock Hill. Their son, Chad, is a graduate of Clemson University and the University of South Carolina School of Law, and their daughter, Sara, graduated from Clemson and completed a master degree in social work at the University of South Carolina.
Lesley Murray was a two-sport standout at Tusculum College and becomes Tusculum?s first student-athlete to be inducted into the SAC Hall of Fame. She was the first student-athlete in conference history to be named Player of the Year for four consecutive years, earning that honor from 2000-2004 in women?s tennis. In 2004, she was named the SAC Female Athlete of the Year. She posted a 64-2 career singles record, including a perfect 22-0 record in SAC matches. Murray led the Pioneers to the NCAA Division II tournament four times, finishing the year nationally-ranked three times. Murray also won the SAC Scholar-Athlete award for women?s tennis twice and was named Academic All-District in 2004. She also lettered three years on the women?s basketball team.
Since graduating with a degree in physical education, Murray has served on the faculty at Greeneville High School, where she serves as an assistant girls? basketball coach, helping guide the team to five trips to the Tennessee State Basketball Tournament.
Leah Jackson Smith helped lead the Carson-Newman women?s basketball team to three consecutive conference championships during her career. She was named the 1990 SAC Freshman of the Year, and the 1993 Player of the Year. She was a four-time first-team All-Conference selection and an All-American as a senior.
Jackson Smith also left her mark in the SAC record book. She is the only player in SAC history to finish with more than 1,700 points and 1,100 career rebounds. She is 11th all-time in scoring, after a 15-year stay in the top 10, and is third on the career rebound chart, fourth in field goals made, 10th in field goals attempted and seventh in field-goal percentage.
Since graduating, Jackson Smith has worked with the Johnson City Parks and Recreation Department as a program coordinator in charge of after school programs and activities
Andy Thompson is the first former men?s soccer student-athlete to be inducted into the SAC Hall of Fame. He was a two-time All-Conference selection and the 1999 men?s soccer Player of the Year. Thompson ranks second all-time in SAC history in career goals (73) and career total scoring (170). In 82 career matches, he averaged .89 goals per match and more than two points per match. His 26 goals scored in 1988 are third-most in SAC history. He was named All-American in 1999.
After graduating, Thompson served as head women?s soccer coach at Wingate University for four years. He currently works in the construction industry.
The class of 2008-09 joins the 63 current members in the SAC Hall of Fame:
Class on 1999-2000:? Dr. Fred Bentley, Mars Hill (President); Dr. Ronald Christopher, Wingate (Baseball Coach); W.C. Clary, supervisor of football officials; Cally Gault, Presbyterian (Football Coach/AD); Fred Herren, Newberry (Football Coach/AD); Dr. Paul Jolly, Gardner-Webb (Faculty Athletic Representative); Dr. Robert Knott, Catawba (President); Dr. Cordell Maddox, Carson-Newman (President); Sam Moir, Catawba (Men?s Basketball Coach); Dr. Keith Ochs, Lenoir-Rhyne (Athletic Director); Dr. Kenneth Orr, Presbyterian (President); Albert Sloan, Carson-Newman (President); Harvey Stratton, Catawba (Football Coach); Dr. Bill Walker, Mars Hill (Athletic Director); Dr. Alan White, Elon (Athletic Director).
Class of 2000-01:? Lamont Jones, Mars Hill (Men?s Basketball); Keith Henry, Catawba (Football); Terence Steward, Lenoir-Rhyne (Football/Baseball); Direne Thomas, Wingate (Women?s Basketball); Dick Williams, Catawba (Baseball Coach).
Class of 2001-02:? Charlie Coles, Newberry (Football); Ann Hancock, Wingate (Women?s Basketball); Bill Morningstar, Elon (Golf, Cross Country Coach); Allen Morris, Presbyterian (Athletic Director); Tom Parham, Elon (Tennis Coach); Susie Hopson Shelton, Mars Hill (Women?s Basketball).
Class of 2002-03:? Allison Ankerson Makovec, Catawba (Women?s Soccer); Vernon Buck, Wingate (Football); Darren Hayes, Wingate (Baseball); Todd Collins, Carson-Newman (Football); Cedric Mansell, Mars Hill (Men?s Basketball); Clyde Miller, Newberry and Gardner-Webb (Baseball Coach); Jimmy Skipper, Newberry (Football).
Class of 2003-04:? Steve Campbell, Mars Hill (Football); Leonard Davis, Lenoir-Rhyne (Football); Kimberly Hampton, Presbyterian (Women?s Tennis); Bret Jones, Presbyterian (Men?s Basketball); Marvin Moore, Catawba (Men?s Basketball); Shannon Myers, Lenoir-Rhyne (Football/Baseball); and Heather Randolph, Carson-Newman (Softball).
Class of 2004-05:? Daniel Colangelo, Elon (Men?s Tennis); Natalie Daniel, Lenoir-Rhyne (Women?s Soccer); Elizabeth Roe Decker, Presbyterian (Women?s Soccer); Pam Deanhardt Niles, Presbyterian (Basketball/Volleyball); Selena Wilkes, Catawba (Volleyball).
Class of 2005-06:? Traci Hyman Davis, Lenoir-Rhyne (Softball/Basketball); Boyce Green, Carson-Newman (Football); Angela Harbour Mayfield, Catawba (Women?s Basketball); Dr. Jerry McGee, Wingate (President); Jennifer Wiggins, Mars Hill (Women?s Cross Country).
Class of 2006-07:? Rachel Sloan Bullard, Presbyterian (Women?s Basketball); Todd Cunningham, Presbyterian (Football); Johnny Jacumin, Wingate (Women?s Basketball Coach); Thomas O. Laurendine, Lenoir-Rhyne (Football); Carol Zachary Mitchell, Carson Newman (Softball); Ken Sparks, Carson Newman (Football Coach); Rev. Edward N. Taylor, Newberry (Football).
Class of 2007-08:? Ed Hoffmeyer, Mars Hill and Tusculum (Athletic Director); Brandon Hughes, Newberry (Men?s Basketball); Alvin Morman, Wingate (Baseball); Don Safrit, Coordinator of Football Officials; Danny Sanders, Carson-Newman (Football); Curtis Walker, Catawba (Football).
